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JAPANESE VESSELS 



uiiivKX ii'oN nil-; 



NOUTH-VVEST COAST OF AMEKICA 



AXD ITS OUTLYING ISLANDS. 



BV lioKAtK DAVIS. 




\V U KC 1". ST K i;. MASS.: 

PUIXTKU BY CHAULKS II A M 1 l/IU N , 

rALI-.MIIUM OKKIl'K. . 

1 S 7 -J . 



AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 



RECORD 



OF 



JAPANESE VESSELS 



DRIVEN UPON THE 



NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA 



AND ITS OUTLYING ISLANDS. 



BY HORACE DAVIS. 



JScaU ttfoit tl)i amnican Sntiquarian £iicirts, at tijcic Sprit ifHetting, tSr2. 



WORCESTER, MASS.: 
PRINTED BY CHARLES HAMILTON, 

PALLADIUM OFFICE. 
1872. 



53\^ 



••'•vv:. 



-1 



H. 



r-H-Y. PUB- <-'"' 



ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF AN ADMIXTURE OF 
JAPANESE BLOOD ON OUR NORTH- 
WEST COAST. 

BY HORACE DAVIS. 



Without any speculation upon the origin of the Indian 
Tribes, I desire to i)rin2: together a few fads regarding the 
possibility of an admixture of Japanese blood on the north- 
west coast of America; and shall confine myself to this 
nari'ow point, leaving it for others to draw wider conclu- 
sions from these premises, or kindred facts. 

The great North Pacific Ocean current is so well known 
as to need only the briefest description. Leaving the coast 
of Lower California between lat. 15° and 25', the great 
Northern Equatorial Current crosses the Pacific in about 
that latitude. Towards the Asiatic Coast it is gradually 
deflected to the northward and sweeps by Japan in a well 
defined stream, called by the Japanese the "Kuro-Siwo," 
commonly termed the "Japan Warm Stream." Further 
north, about lat. 38° North, it divides, one part flowing 
northeasterly along the Coast of Asia, called the Kamt- 
cbatka Current, while the other portion, which more nearly 
concerns us, sweeps away to the eastward and crossing the 
Pacific Ocean south of the Aleutian Islands is deflected by 
the continent of America to the southward, and following 
its western shores, finally reaches the point of begiiming. 



6 

A vessel clisQiasted ofi" Japan would inevitably be drifted 
past the shores of Kamtchatka, or following the other 
branch would reach the neighborhood of the Continent of 
America. 

This has actually happened in repeated instances. With- 
in the ninety years which comprise the history of the 
N. W. Coast, several disabled .lapanese vessels have 
reiiched our shores. Two have been wrecked upon the 
main land, four upon the isilands now belonging to the 
United States, one upon islands immediately adjacent to 
Lower California, and one at least, if not two, have been 
boarded at sea but a short distance from our shores, and in 
every case of which we have record, living men were 
rescued from the wreck. It is my object simply to collect 
these incidents aud present them in a connected form, giv- 
ing in each case the original authorities, and such explana- 
tion as the case may require. 

1 shall quote first from Kotzebue's "Voyage of Discovery 
into the South Sea and Behriug's Straits," London, 1821, 
Vol. 1. On page 324 he speaks of meeting at Honorara 
(Honolulu), Woahoo (Oahu), a brig in the royal Hawaiian 
service, named after Queen Kahumanna. She was built by 
the French as a privateer and named "La Grande Guim- 
barde." Having been taken by the English, she was sold 
to English merchants, who gave her the name "Forester of 
London." Capt. Piggott brought her out to the " South 
Sea" and sold her to Tamaahiuaah (Kamehameha), King of 
the Hawaiian Islands. Capt. Alexander Adams, Capt. 
Piggott's second officer, then entered the King's service 
and became her commander. On page 352 Kotzebue says, 
"Capt. Alexander Adams dined with us to-day, whose con- 



versatiou delighted us very much." And in a note, p. 353, 
he gives this interesting incident, " Looliing over Adams' 
journal I found the following notice, 'Brig Forester, the 
24th of March, 1815, in the sea, near the coast of Califor- 
nia, lat. 32° 45' N., long 233= 3' East, [57' W.] During 
a strong wind from W. N. W. and rainy weather, we 
descried this morning at (5 o'clock, a ship at a small dis- 
tance, the disorder of whose sails convinced us that it 
stood in need of assistance. We immediately directed our 
course to it, and recognized the vessel in distress to be a 
Japanese, which had lost her mast and rudder. I was sent 
by the Captain on board, and found in the ship only three 
(3) dying Japanese, the Captain and two sailors. I 
instantly had the unfortunate men carried to our brig, 
where they were perfectly recovered, after four months 
careful attendance. We learnt from these people that they 
came from the port of Osaco [Osaca], in Japan, bound to 
another commercial town, but had been surprised immedi- 
ately on their departure, by a storm, an.d had lost their 
mast and rudder. They had been, up to this day, a sport 
of the waves for seventeen mouths ; and of their crew of 
thirty-five men only three had survived, who would have 
died of hunger." 

Prof. Geo. Davidson, in "Coast Pilot of Alaska," Wash- 
ington, 1869, page 63, quotes this passage and says the 
position indicated is about 350 miles W. S. W. (compass), 
from Point Conception. Prof. Davidson adds, "supposing 
this juuk to have kept on the S. side of the axis of the 
great current, and to have been carried directly down the 
American coast on the western part of this current, it must 



8 

have traversed 5,300 miles in 516 daj's, or a trifle over ten 
miles per day fur that whole period." 

The next instance I shall cite is to be found in Alexander 
Forbes' History of California, written at Tepic, 1838, pub- 
lished in London, 1839, part 2d, Upper California, chap. 
VII., pages 299-301. Forbes says, "The British brig 
Forester, bound from London to the river Columbia, and 
commanded by Mr. John Jennings, fell in with, in the year 
1813, a Japanese junk of about 700 tons burdeu, one hun- 
dred and fifty miles off the northwest coast of America and 
abreast of Queen Charlotte's Island, about 49° of N. lati- 
tude. There were only three persons alive on board, one 
of whom was the captain. By the best accounts Capt. 
Jennings could get from them, they had been tossing about 
at sea for nearly eighteen months ; they had been twice in 
sight of the land of America, and were driven off. Some 
beans still remained on which they had been sustaiuing 
themselves, and the}' had caught rain water for their drink. 
This vessel had left the northern coast of Japan loaded 
with timber for some of tiie islands to the southward, and 
had been blown ofi" the coast by gales of wind. She had 
no masts standing, but in other respects was not much 
injured. Captain Jennings took the survivors on board of 
his vessel and delivered tiiem at the Russian settlement of 
Norfolk Sound, the governor of which, owing to the friend- 
ship existing between Russia and the Japanese, sent a 
vessel on purpose with them to their own country." 

The position here indicated is somewhat uncertain, as 
Queen Charlotte's Island lies between about 51° and 54° N. 
latitude, but in Forbes's time the geography of this coast 



9 

was uncertain. The identit}' of the name of the vessel, of 
the uurnber of rescued men and of tlie length of the junk's 
voyage, leads to a suspicion that this may be the same as 
the last instance ; but the differences are greater than the 
coincidence, viz : the Captain's name, the junk's port of 
departure, Osaca being at the southern end of Niphon, 
the wreck's position, over 1200 miles from that of Capt. 
Adams, and the year. Forbes was in Calfornia himself, 
and evidently from the minuteness of this account, gathered 
it from something more than mere rumor ; he may have 
heard of the rescue by the "Forester" and confused the 
two events. It is very singular that no writer that I am 
aware of has ever noticed this remarkable story, and that 
Prof. Davidson is the onl3' one who has cited the note from 
Kotzebue. 

Capt. C. M. Scammon, of the U. S. Rev. Marine, who 
was the discoverer of the wreck I am now about to 
describe, has kindly furnished me with the following facts, 
contributed by himself to the Dail}' Alta California, of 
April 22, 1860. "In 1853 there was found on the south- 
west and largest of the San Benito Group, the remains of 
what was supposed to be a Japanese junk ; whether it was 
some part of those said to have been cast away on the 
coast of Oregon several years ago, or the relic of some 
other eastern [Oriental] sailing craft, is a subject of con- 
jecture. That it was one or the other there can be no 
doubt. The jilanks were fastened together on the edges 
with spikes or bolts of a flat shape, with the head all on 
one side. The seams wei-e not straight, although the work- 
manship was otherwise good. It appeared to be the bot- 
tom of a vessel that was seen here and gave evidence of 



10 

having been a long time on shore." San Benito Ishmcls 
are off Lower California, uear Cerros Island, lat. 2H N., 
Ion. 116 W. 

Cajjt. Scanimon has since furnished me with the follow- 
ing memorandum, from Chief Engineer Jas. A. Doyle, of 
U. S. S. "Lincoln:" "In July, 1871, while attached to 
the U. S. Rev. Str. Lincoln, I visited the island of Attou, 
which marks the extreme western hmit of our new posses- 
sions. I went on shore and was kindly received by the 
natives. I was shown the remains of a Japanese junk that 
had been wrecked on the island not far from the harbor. 
The people told me that they saved four of the crew and 
kept them for nearly a year until they were taken off by 
one of the Fur Company's vessels on her annual visit to the 
island. The old chief (he was aljout seventy) told me 
that during his time three junks had been lost on the sur- 
rounding islets, and joking!}' remarked that the people 
would thank the Ahnighty if he would direct the wrecked 
junks into their harbor, as they were very badly off for 
wood." 

I presume the tii-st one mentioned by Mr. Doyle is the 
same vessel as. that aihided to by Prof. Davidson, which 
stranded on Attou, in 1862. The other three are entirely 
new instances. 

I will next cite the wreck of a vessel on Point Adams, 
the southern shore of the mouth of Columbia River, proba- 
bly somewhex'e from 1810 to 1820. My oldest authority 
on this vessel is Capt. Sir Edward Belcher, who was at 
Astoria in 1839. In his "Voyage around the World," 
Loudon, 1843, Vol. I., page 306, he says : "A wreck like- 
wise occurred in this bay, [meaning the indentation of the 



11 

coast off the Columbia River], many years ago. * * * * 
It appears that a vessel with many hands on board, and 
laden with bees-wax, entered the bay and was wrecked ; 
she went to pieces, and the crew got on shore. Many 
articles were washed on shore, and particularly the bees- 
M'ax. This latter is even now [1839] occasionally thrown 
upon the beach, but in smaller quantities than formerly. 
I have one specimen now in my possession." 

Prof. Davidson, in his "Coast Pilot of California, Oregon 
and Washington Territory," U. S. Coast Survey, 1869, 
alludes to her as a "Chinese or Japanese junk." lie says, 
"there are occasionally, after great storms, pieces of this 
wax thrown ashore, coated with sand and bleached nearly 
white. Formerly a great deal was found, but now it is 
rarely met with. Many people on the Columbia possess 
specimens, and we [in 1851] have seen several pieces." 
See also Overland Monthly, Jan'y, 1871, article entitled 
"Mouth of Columbia River." I do not know on what 
authority Davidson confidently pronounces the vessel a 
" Chinese or Japanese junk," nor do I know what became 
of the crew. This wreck has been very generally con- 
founded with the one of whicli I am now al)out to relate. 

Early in 1833 a Japanese junk was wrecked somewhere 
on the coast of Washington Territory, between Point 
Grenville and Cape Flattery. The authorities in this case 
are Capt. Wyeth, in a note, in the appendix of Irvihg's 
"Adventures of Capt. Bonneville," Sir Edward Bfffcher, as 
above, and Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, ^e had been 
out a very long time, whence, or whither bbund, does not 
appear, and many of her crew had perished by starvation 
or disease before she was wrecked, and Belcher adds that 



/ 



12 

"several detid bodies were headed up in casks." After 
straiidiug, the wreck was plundered and the survivors 
enslaved by the savages. Wilkes says the officers of the 
Hudson Bay Company, at Astoria, became aware of this 
disaster in a singular manner. They received a drawing 
on a piece of China-paper, in which were depicted three 
shipwrecked persons, with the junk on the rocks aud the 
Indians engaged in plundering. This was sufficient to 
induce them to make inquiries, and Capt. McNeal was dis- 
patched on the H. B. Co.'s vessel 'Lama' to Cape Flattery. 
He had the satisfaction to find the three Japanese, whom 
be rescued from slavery. There were two men and a boy, 
and there was some trouble in purchasing the boy. The 
H. B. Co. subsequently sent them to England, whence they 
were sent to Macao, and it is stated in Perry's Japan Expe- 
dition, that in 1837 they were sent to the bay of Yeddo, in 
the "Morrison,"' by Mr. C. A. King, an American mer- 
chant ; the " Morrison " was fired upon aud sailed away to 
Kagosima, was again fired upon and returned to Macao, 
with the Japanese on board. As a memorial of this extra- 
ordinary incident, says Wilkes, porcelain of Japanese 
manufacture, which was purchased from the Indians who 
plundered the junk, was seen in possession of Mr. Birnie, 
the agent of the H. B. Co., at Astoria. Capt. Wyeth saj's 
he saw two of the men. Davidson alludes to this vessel in 
"Coast Pilot of Cal. &c." p. 181. See also Schoolcraft's 
Indian tribes of U. S., p. 217, and Haven's Archaeology of 
U. S. (Smithsonian Cont. , 1856), p. 8. The refcreuce 
may be found in Belcher's Voyage, chapter XII., Vol. I., p. 
303, Wilkes' Exj)loring Expedition, Vol. IV., chap. IX., 
page 295, Rev. F. L. Hawkes' Account of Com. Perry's 



13 

Expedition to Jap<an, Wash. ISSfi, Vol. I., p. 47. Wyeth 
eiTS iu locating the wreck on Queen Charlotte's Island, and 
Hawkes errs in placing her at the mouth of the Columbia. 

About 1800-1805 a Japanese junk was wrecked on the 
coast of Alaska, probably near Sitka. This incident was 
furnished me by the kindness of Prof. Davidson, and so far 
as I know has never been published. Davidson has failed 
to find the account in the Russian Documents, but obtained 
the information during his survey of the coast of Alaska. 
The Japanese sailors were landed and assigned by Wrangell 
to Japonski Island, opposite Sitka, the Island receiving its 
name from them. They were taken thence to Japan, 
either in a Russian vessel, or in one built by themselves ; 
Davidson thinks tliey built one from the wreck. The com- 
pass of the junk, many stone carvings &c., are iu posses- 
sion of Dr. Hough, of the U. S. Army, and now stationed 
on Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco harbor. Prof. David- 
son also has some of the carvings. 

In the latter part of the 18th century, prol)al)ly about 
1780, a Japanese junk was wrecked on one of the Aleutian 
Islands, (name unknown). This information may be found 
in the history of the Russian-American Shelikoff Com- 
pany, by P. Tichmeneff, parti., p. 100, and iu Hawkes' 
Account of the Perry Expedition, Vol I., p. 45. Tich- 
meneff, whose account I have copied from Prof. Davidson's 
notes, says : "These Japanese were saved by a clerk in the 
employ of the Shelikoff Company, named Delarolf, who 
was temporarily in one of the Aleutian Islands. On that 
Island he found a wrecked Japanese junk. Delaroff took 
all the Japanese in his vessel to the city of Ockotsk and 
thence to Irkutsk. They bad little hope, however, of 



14 

seeing their uative land, as some of them had already been 
converted to the Christian religion. The father of Lieut. 
Lakmann, [the embassador heading the expedition which 
finally returned them to Japan], a scientific German gentle- 
man, living at that time in Irkutsk, and engaged in a manu- 
facturing establishment, advised Shelikotf, (Chief of the 
Company bearing his name), to confer with the Empress 
Catherine and suggest that the wrecked Japanese be for- 
warded to their country, as through this means Japan might 
become better known and a successful commercial treaty 
established. The Empress answered that the plan was 
excellent, and immediately [1702] ordered an expedition to 
carry the Japanese home. Accompanying the expedition 
was a letter from the Governoi'-General of Siberia and 
valuable presents to the Japanese Government. The em- 
bassador entrusted with the enterprise was Lieut. Adam 
Lakmann, the Captain-Commanding Larkofi'. The expedi- 
tion was kindly received by the Japanese Government, and 
the Emperor gave permission that one Eussian vessel 
should yearly be allowed to enter Nagasaki for the purpose 
of commercial intercourse with Japan." 

Hawkes gives a somewhat diflerent account of their 
i-eturn. He says they were detained ten years in Eussia, 
and sailed in the fall of 1792, from Ockotsk, in a transport 
ship, called the "Catherine." They soon made a harbor in 
the northern part of the Island of Jesso, and there win- 
tered ; in the succeeding summer they entered the harbor 
of Hakodadi The Japanese were polite, but refused to 
take back their country-men, and Lakmann left without 
landing the Japanese. 

"In September, 18(J2, a Japanese vessel was wrecked on 



15 

the Island of Attou. They had beeu driven off the coast 
of Japan two or three months before, with a crew of twelve 
men, of which she had lost nine before going ashore ; and 
she had thus been drifted 1800 miles in the Kamtschatka 
current, at an average velocity of twenty miles per day." 
Davidson's Alaska Coast Pilot, p. 64. Prof. Davidson told 
me he got these particulars from the officei's who rescued 
them. Attou is in lat. 52° 40 N., Ion. 170° 40' East, and 
is the westernmost point of the territory of the United 
States. Still it is not over 700 miles from the main laud, 
and connected with it by a chain of is-lauds. 

On Saturday, 16th December, 1871, the schooner H. M. 
Hutchinson brought into San Francisco three Japanese 
castaways, taken from Atka Island, in lat. 52° 30' N., Ion. 
175° west. The junk Jinko Maru of Mats Saka, province 
of Ise, of 180 kogus measurement, sailed from Ise with a 
cargo of rice for Kumauo province. She met with a severe 
gale on the 28th day of November, 1870, lost her rudder 
and was obliged to cut away her masts. She drifted till 
the 15th May, 1871, when her crew sighted the Island of 
Adakh, aind let go her anchor about a mile from shore. 
They had eaten up her cargo of rice, and only three of 
the crew remained alive. The Aleutians came off, and hove 
up the anchor, and towed her into a little harbor, where she 
drove ashore in a gale soon after. The Ja[)ancse lived two 
months on Adakh, being kindly treated l)y the Fur Com- 
pany's agents. Thence they sailed in their own boat to 
Atka, arriving July 10 ; whence the Hutchinson took them 
(Sept !)), to Onnalaska, and thence to Sau Francisco. 
Adakh is very near Atka, to the W. S. W. It is about 
520 miles from the nearest point of the continent of 



16 

America, but it is connected with the main land by the 
chain of islands betwsen Alaska and Attou.* 

Before closing this singular catalogue of waifs, I will add 
three cases of drifting upon islands in our half of the 
Pacific Ocean, though far removed from us, and two of dis- 
masted junks, found near the Aleutian Islands. Belcher, 
Vol. I., p. 304, says: "About the same time [1833], 
another Japanese junk was wrecked on the Island of Oahu, 
Sandwich Islands. From the Hawaiian Spectator, Vol. 1., 
p. 29fi, I have the details. 'A junk, laden with fish, and 
haviug nine hands on board, left one of the southern 
islands of the Japanese Group, for Jeddo, but, eucouuter- 
ing a typhoon, was driven to sea. After wandering about 
the ocean for ten or eleven months, they anchored on the 
last Sunday in December, 1832, near the harbor of 
Waialea, Oahu. Their supply of water had been obtained 
from casual showers. On being visited, four persons were 
found on board ; three of these were severeh^ afflicted with 
scurvy, two being unable to walk and the third nearly so. 
The fourth was in good health and had the sole management 
of the vessel. After remaining at Waialea five or six days, 
an attempt was made to bring the vessel to Honolulu, 
where she was wrecked ofl" Barber's point, on the evening 



* Since writing tlie above I have met Capt. Anton Earth, who rescued the 
survivors from the Island of Adakh. in 1871. He has resided in Atka for nrany 
years, and has married an Aleutian wife. lie informs me that tlie old iieoiile 
of his wife's family tell him that ahout twenty years ago a Japanese junk was 
cast away upon Atka, and only three of her crew saved. He also confirms the 
wreck on Attou, having been there and seen the Japanese, in 1863. They were 
eventually taken to the Amoor River, by a Russian vessel, and thence in a 
man-of-war, to Japan. He said he had heard of other wrecks on the Aleutian 
Islands, but could give no particulars. He spoke of the similarity between the 
Japanese and Aleuts, both in personal appearance and in the sound of the 
language. 



17 

of Jauuary 1st, 18;53. Everything but the crew was lost 
with the exception of a few trifling articles. The men 
remained at llonohilu eighteen months, when they were 
forwarded to Kamtschatka, from whence they hoped, 
eventually, to work their way, by stealth, into their own 
country, approaching by the way of the most northern 
islands of the Group." 

A condensed account of the same incident may be found 
in Forbes's California, (quoted above), p. 300. Forbes 
adds that her burden was only eighty tons. 

In the "Old and New" magazine, of June, 1870, is an 
article entitled "Our Furthest Outpost," by C. \V. Brooks, 
Esq., Japanese Consul at San Francisco. Speaking of the 
cruise of the bark Gambia, in 1859, among the snial 
islands to the northeast of the Hawaiian Group, he says, 
"On these and many other islands and rocks visited Avere 
found wrecks of Japanese junks." Again, speaking of the 
Midway Islands, the subject of the article, he says, "On 
the East side are the remains of two Japanese junks, their 
lower masts stranded high up on the beach. The northeast 
shore is lined with drift-wood, among which are many red- 
wood logs of formidable size, evidently from the coast of 
California." Midway Islands are in lat. 28° 15 N., Ion. 
177° 22' W. 

Mr. C. W. Brooks has also informed me that Capt. 
Brooks of the Gambia, found remains of a junk on "Ocean 
Island," lat. 28= 24' N., Ion. 178=' 21' W., very near Mid- 
way Islands. 

There are many Japanese wrecks strewn among the 

islands of the Pacific, but I allude to these on Oahu, Ocean 

and Midway especially, l)ecause they are situated partially 

3 



18 

ill the return flow of the great current, and, as is shown by 
the character of the drift-stutt" thrown on their beaches, 
these Japanese wrecks had very likely once been near the 
American shores. 

I will here mention two dismasted vessels met at sea, 
which were furnished me by the kindness of Mr. Brooks, 
but I have been unable to ascertain the authorities from 
which he derived them. 

"In 1848, Capt. Cox, of New London, Conn., picked up 
15 or 20 Japanese, from a disabled junk, in lat. 40^ N., 
Ion. 170° W. He kept them on board during a cruise in 
the Okotsk sea and finally landed them at Lahaina." 

"In 1855, Capt. Brooks, of Brig Leverett, picked up an 
abandoned junk in lat. 42° N., Ion. 170° W." Both these 
are about in the longitude of Alaska, and south of the 
Aleutian Islands." 

If I had time and opportunity, I have no doubt I might 
greatly extend this list. These cases have been gathered 
in the course of a few weeks, mainly by inquiry among my 
personal friends and amidst the prosecution of an active 
business. The further I extended my enquiries the greater 
results I obtained, and I am convinced that a much lai'ger 
number of cast-aways will eventually come to our knowl- 
edge, besides the many which have perished from exjiosure, 
or died in captivity among the savages. 

Many wrecked junks have also been fouud on the islnads 
nearer to Japan, but as they are foreign to my jiurposo, I 
deem them only worthy of general mention, as increasing 
he sum of probabilities. Perry found them on the Bonin 
Islands. See Hawkes's account of Perry's Exped., Vol. I., 
p. 199. Brooks mentions them among the islands between 



19 

the Hawaiian Group and Japan. Many others have found 
such wrecks among the islands further west, nearer Japan. 

I have been told also that there is one near Petropauloski 
in Kamtschatka, and one on Kauai, the uortheimmost of the 
Hawaiian Islands, but I am unable to find proper authority 
foi' them. 

The number of cast-away Japanese who have been picked 
up at sea, and brought into San Francisco and Honolulu, is 
also considerable, taken from a score or more of vessels, but 
I have been luiable to obtain any correct data of their posit 
tions at the time of rescue, which alone would render them 
valuable for my purpose. Besides, many of them, perhaps 
all, were picked up very far to the westward of America. 
For example, during 1871, two crews were brought into 
San Francisco. On Feb. 2, lat. 23° 45' N., Ion. 141° 
31' East, the ship Annie M. Small took four men from a 
wreck; and on May 23, lat. 34= 54 N., Ion. 143= 32 East, 
the steamship China rescued five men. 

In this connection it is worth}- of mention that when the 
Japanese Government adopted the policy of non-inter- 
course, about 200 years ago, they not only forbade their 
vessels to trade with foreign ports, but they altered by law 
the construction of their junks, rendering them unfit for 
anything but coasting voyages. By piescribing an open 
stern and a huge rudder like our river steamboat rudders, 
they made their vessels very liable to a loss of the rudder, 
which must be speedily followed by cutting away the masts, 
and then the junk was helpless. A look at the preceding 
list of disasters will show how often this took place. 01 
course thus confining them near the shore would very nuich 
lessen the chances of their falling into the course of the 



20 

Great Ocean Currents, which would sweep them away to 
America. Those hiws have now been abrogated ; au ac- 
count of them may be found in Perry's Expedition. 

The evidences of any local influences resulting from a 
contact with the Asiatic nations are very slight, and all 
that has come under my knowledge in this search can be 
stated in few words. Of the Aleuts, Davidson says, in 
Alaska Coast Pilot, p. f>2, "The Aleuts are very distinct 
in their looks, manners, language and customs, from all the 
other Indians of the northwest, and many of them Ijear a 
close resemblance to the less marked of the Japanese, so 
much so that the question at once arises whether this people 
has not been derived from cast-away or shipwrecked inhab- 
itants of Japan, carried thither by the Kamtschatka branch 
of the great Japanese stream ; but it is not our province 
to investigate the problem in this place." 

An agent of the Alaska Commercial Company, -who 
brought down the three Japanese from Atka on the 
"Hutchinson," said they had no diificulty in making their 
wants known to the Aleuts, for they had many words in 
common. This gentleman had resided long at the north- 
west, and spoke the Aleutian langunge. 

Wilkes also noticed among some of the tribes of Indians 
he visited on the Straits of Fuca, the presence of some 
simple acts resembling the Chinese, such as a style of 
weaving rush mats, the conical hats, &c., and he speaks of 
the presence of tiie "oblique" eye among the coast tribes 
only, and a variety of complexions in certain localities, as 
suggesting a kinship to the Asiatic nations. I may add, 
however, that in San Francisco, where house-servants, both 
of Chinese and Indian extraction, are common, it is often 



21 

very puzzling to detect their nationality, when dressed in 
European style. I have often been deceived myself. But 
these questions, as well as that of a similarity in language, 
are out of the range of my knowledge and foi'eign to my 
purpose. 

To sum up then the sure results obtained, we have in the 
ninety years, from 1781 to 1871, nine junks, either stranded 
on our shores or drifted to their immediate neighborhood, 
and one at Oahu — and in every case where we have a 
record of the wreck a part of the crew saved alive, and 
this too at a period when the Japanese commercial regida- 
tions were most unfavorable to such voyages as brought 
their vessels within the influence of the Great Stream which 
could bear them to our shores. Recapitulating the list 
with approximate dates, we have, in 

ISi:-, Junk boai-ded at Sea, lat. 32= 45 N., Ion. 106° 57' W. 
1813, " " about 49° " 131°. 

1820, " stranded on Point Adams. 
1833, " " CajjB Flattery. 

1805, '' " near Sitka. 

1782, " " on an Aleutian Island. 

1862, " " " Attou 

1871, " " " Adakh " 

1832, " " " Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. 

Date unknown, wreck on San Benito Island. 
Date unknown, several wi-ecks of junks on Midway and Ocean 
Islands, and Group between tliere and Oaliu. 

So much has come to our knowledge unquestionably, 
without counting the other cases which rest upon rumor. 
There is still remaining a possibility of more, whose crews 
have perished among the savages, or been absorbed. It is 
au interesting inquiry whether before the daj's of Japanese 



22 

exclusiveuess there may not, with fi-eer navigation and 
stronger vessels, have been many more. And as Japanese 
History is opened to our study, it will be a curious question 
whether some crew may not have returned home with the 
tidings of a new world far across the Ocean. However 
this may be, these facts are very interesting to illustrate 
the possil)le course of migration, and any anomalies 
observed among the northwest coast Indians may possibly 
receive some light from the likelihood of an infusion of 
Japanese blood. 



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